JU campus on fire for controversial film screening and molestation

Kolkata, May 7: JU is tense once again! This time because of the screening of a film by Vivek Agnihotri-Buddha in a Traffic Jam, followed by the molestation of female students.

With protests from the left-wing students loyal to the FETSU, vice chancellor Suranjan Das blamed the JU Alumni association for giving permission to the organisers to use the Triguna Sen Auditorium and then cancelling it.

Das said, "We have never given permission, nor cancelled it. The Triguna Sen Auditorium is owned and managed by the JU Alumni Association and we have no say in its running. We have no control over to whom and when they will rent the hall, or the money they will charge."

He further added, "The main culprit is the alumni association. Why did they give the hall to the Pune-Based organisation in the first place, and then again cancelled it? We will talk to the alumni association."

He further said that the organisers should have taken permission from the university authorities before holding the open-air screening.

Stating the protocol, Das further said, "If any outside organisation wants to hold a meeting on the ground, they need to take permission from the authorities. The organsiation which held the screening is not even remotely connected to the university. But they never bothered to take permission."

On asking why the authorities did not stop the screening immediately after it was started, Das said that it could have triggered more problems. Das said that the university authorities have received complaints from a few female learners that they had been molested. "Four of them were identified and kept in our estate office. But no one was confined. They have been handed over to the police. We have filed an FIR on behalf of the university against them".

Meanwhile, BJP leader Roopa Ganguly said that the four students were beaten mercilessly and that one of them had fainted. The four had been invited for the screening of the film and were wrongly confined on a false accusation.

After straging a demonstration at the Jadavpur police station, the leader rushed to the university. "We have come to take the four of our invitees safely home. They have been beaten up. They are in a bad condition. We will wait for ten minutes. And then our people will take one minute to climb the gates and enter the campus," said BJP leader Debasree Chowdhury.

The situation went out of control when the ABVP-BJP came face to face with the students, ready to attack each other but separated by an iron gate. After much convicting by Suranjan Das, the crowd dispersed.

Meanwhile, Agnihotri was asked why there were protests against the film. To which he answered, "Because for the first time in 70 years somebody has dared to expose the Naxal-academia-intellectuals-media nexus."

However, the protesting students said, "Preaching divisiveness and Hindu fundamentalism should not be allowed on the campus."